Versions are those current on 25 September 2026. This chapter ran Docker Engine 514 , Podman 47,580 and Buildah 919,369 on its Ubuntu 26.04 225 host and read Docker 514 's containerd 234,762 with nerdctl 10,397 ; the desktop products are described from their documentation.
| Tool | License | Platforms | Engine and privileges | Kubernetes 5,150 | Business use |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Docker Engine 29.8.1 | Apache-2.0 | Linux | dockerd; rootless optional | Swarm 514 only | Free |
| Docker Desktop 514 | Proprietary | Windows, macOS, Linux | VM with dockerd | kubeadm 5,150 or kind | Paid from 250 staff or $10M |
| Podman 5.7.0 (6.1.2 upstream) | Apache-2.0 | Linux; VM elsewhere | No daemon; rootless by default | Pods, kube play | Free |
| Buildah 1.42.1 | Apache-2.0 | Linux | No daemon; rootless | Builds only | Free |
| containerd + nerdctl 2.4.0 | Apache-2.0 | Linux | containerd; rootless optional | The CRI runtime itself | Free |
| Rancher Desktop 1.24.0 40,103 | Apache-2.0 | Windows, macOS, Linux | VM with dockerd or containerd | k3s 51,195 | Free |
| Podman Desktop 105,833 | Apache-2.0 | Windows, macOS, Linux | VM with Podman | kind, Minikube 14,561 | Free |
| Colima 0.10.3 31,010 | MIT | macOS, Linux | VM with dockerd or containerd | k3s | Free |
| OrbStack 76,715 | Proprietary | macOS | VM with dockerd | Built in | $8 per user per month |
Every engine that runs containers in production is open source under Apache-2.0; the commercial products sell convenience on the desktop, not the runtime. The rest of this book uses Docker Engine, Compose 514 and, in Kubernetes, containerd inside kind nodes, all free at any company size.